Managing disruptive student in class
I talk to the student outside the class room and turn the situation around
making the student the target of the disruption that he or she was doing,
to show how this effectives the student and in turn how that action effects
the rest of the class
I have used this technique before and it works bout 50% of the time for me. The other 50%, I usually have to involve security. That ends up taking time away from the other students learning.
At the beginning of the semester I talk to the students about responsibility. I tell them that it is my responsibility to maintain order in the classroom, and that I take that very seriously. I know of incidents where one student asked another to quiet down and it almost went to blows.
I explain that it is my job to keep order, and that I, will be the one to make that call. I do not need them to get into an incident with another student. It normally works, although many of the disruptive students have a less than favorable opinion of me.
I have a student who is disruptive in what at first seems positive. She wants to participate. But she interrupts so often with "I have a question, sorry." Some questions are valid, most seem impulsive... like a behavioral tick. She even puts her hand over her mouth when the "I have a question" comes out and always apologizes. I'm going to use the suggestion of cards to limit the amount of time one student can use class discussion time so that others can participate. Her behavior actually stops many others from participating and makes it difficult to get through material.
Patricia you are so right this method does seem to work for my students as well.
Thank you all for sharing your experiences. I once had a student who should have been in law school instead of in my physics class, and he wasted a lot of the class' time. Now I know better how to deal with such situations.
Thanks, Patricia. Your policy is no nonsense, and I can definitly learn from it. I've learned not to single students out. I find it effective to speak to them one of one, and/or send them a private e-mail. This usually does the trick. I had one case where I had to ask certain students to leave, and I even had to call the security guard on one student, who was totally disrespectful to me. It's a good thing that these students are a rarity, because I enjoy most of the students. Teaching at IADT has been a pleasure.
Hi Larry,
Disruption certainly affects all in the classroom. I will warn students once about being disruptive; after one warning, I ask the student to leave the classroom, and they are marked absent.
Patricia
